Haven't been to Cincinnati, but I went to CHAP in PA a couple of years ago by myself with my then 10-month-old nursing baby (and I will probably go this year, with a 9-month-old nursing baby). CHAP was easy with a baby; they do have a nursing mother's lounge that made a quiet place to sit, but there was plenty of place to sit aside from that too (it just happened to be convenient to sit in there a couple of times). Bathrooms had space to change him. I brought a baby carrier (Kozy) that I could use on my front or back, but no stroller, although there were those too. When I went to CHAP, I was helping a friend in her booth so I had somewhere to set my bag and purchases, but if I go this year, I may bring a rolling suitcase for purchases. It would have been very easy for someone to walk the baby around and bring him to me as needed. So all that to say, I don't know about your conference in particular, but CHAP was very easily doable with a nursing baby.

Little bit of everything. I do use Advil sometimes, and I don't hesitate to use my asthma inhalers when needed; I have never really found an effective natural treatment for immediate use. I used an OTC iron supplement in pregnancy, because the more natural options were really expensive (and the OTC works well for me). I also use vitamin D supplements and cod liver oil, and I get a lot of use out of grapefruit seed extract (I staved off and killed a budding sinus infection with GSE last year) and breastmilk. But I also took my kids in to get antibiotic drops for pink eye this summer -- only because I was 9 months pregnant and wanted to kill the infection completely before the newborn arrived; I didn't have any breastmilk, and that was one time I didn't want to wait things out. I guess just whatever fits the bill; I am grateful for modern medicine and choose to use it judiciously.

My 8yo boy is getting Legos, a couple more TinTin books (he collects the series), the one book in the Boys of Wartime series by Laurie Calkhoven that our library doesn't have, and I'm not sure what else, possibly a Transformer. There are a lot of collective gifts this year that are going to all of the children -- some games, some DVDs (Hobbit extended version is one), a big SnapCircuits set. DH is considering one of those build-your-own-engine kits for them too, possibly for DS1's birthday (he turns 9 a few weeks after Christmas). Board games and origami kits have been big hits in the past.

One year we gave handmade pottery mugs from our favorite local potter, on Christmas Eve, followed by hot chocolate and the Christmas story.

Thanks everyone! So many great ideas in this thread. We hit the craft store today and picked up supplies -- hoping to do some next week!

Three beautiful, glorious weeks! Well, the older kids have a couple of independent things to finish up next week that they didn't get to this week. We are planning to do crafts and baking and reading, so they'll count as school days, but it won't be the usual math and writing and all. We'll have company off and on for a bit, and DH will be off/working at home off and on, so we won't start back to school until the Monday after New Year's. (I need the time to catch up on some projects around the house that I couldn't do while very pregnant and with a newborn, and I find that it's just really difficult to get to those things while doing schoolwork too.)

My 2yo (29 months) plays with duplos a ton, so your little guy may in a bit as well. We also get a ton of mileage out of the wooden train set and the play kitchen. And stickers and crayons. And geoboards with rubber bands. He also likes chalk and watercolors and feltboards. Mostly for my 5yo, I printed out a ton of preschool learning activity packs, and he loves them; then the 2yo wants to practice cutting and gluing and writing too. The chunky wooden puzzles from Melissa & Doug are great for him because he can do the puzzles or play with the animals/vehicles. I use workboxes for my big kids, so if I put a few activities (even just books) in the 2yo's box, he assumes that it's his work, and he is thrilled!

DD learned by having a table and looking problems up on the table as needed. Over time, she needed the table less and less. DS1 is using some iPad apps, but he is learning them by using Singapore, because it tends to be a bit repetitive and intensive for a few lessons (which works for him).

Thank you all -- this is really helpful! I am fairly confident that I can read the labels and avoid dairy; my DD was allergic to dairy for a while, and I remember checking the kosher symbols and all for her. It sounds like a mix would be the way to go.

If someone who was not familiar at all with GF cooking and only slightly familiar with DF cooking (in that I have used coconut oil and coconut milk instead of dairy products) wanted to bake some cookies for a family who is GF/DF, how would one do that? Said family has one child who is slightly allergic to both items, but the mother says that products produced in facilities that use them are okay. So would that mean that well-scrubbed pans/utensils from my house would be okay? Tell me about baking cookies that would be safe -- recipes? What works well for the flour in cookies? Anything else I should know (like, do I need to be careful of certain decorations or anything that one might happen to use on cookies)?

I posted a similar question on the chat board and have gotten a couple of really great ideas that I would not have thought of: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/497592-favorite-christmas-crafts-and-kids/ I really want to make one of those knitted Advent garlands, where you hang up a different small ornament each day, but so far, it hasn't happened. We almost always end up traveling for Thanksgiving, and it really throws off my Christmas preparations.

Probably, but not this weekend. Kids are really excited!

Oh, yes! My littles will love this! It'll smell good too. And hmmm, maybe we will have to make some painted salt dough ornaments too -- how can I possibly not have any of these yet? Great ideas!

Our front door isn't really convenient to use, for a variety of reasons, but the only closet on the main floor is in that room, and so are hooks for coats. Each child has a hook -- currently, each child's hook holds one sweatshirt, one heavy winter coat, and one backpack. Nothing else. In the closet in that room are hangers for snowpants (and a snowsuit for the toddler) and adult coats, and bins for shoes (one for each child, though the baby doesn't have one yet, and the 2yo and 5yo share one). What we do use is our side/back door, which opens into the kitchen. The back stairs open into that entryway, so on the door to the back stairs, which is kept open, I hang one of those plastic shoe organizers. Each child has a row of pockets in it for his or her hats, mittens, etc., multiples of each. I also put clothespins on several of the pockets. Wet stuff gets hung immediately on the clothespins. Wet boots are required to remain in that part of the kitchen (on the linoleum), and we just line them up in the corner. It's still not a truly great system, but it does work, and it is really the best I can do.

Happened to see this. I've never used LL, but I adore GSWL like little else. It was absolutely the perfect introduction to Latin for both DD and me -- straightfoward, clear, incremental, plenty of review, short lessons, just a bit of humor (sentences that translated to things like "we are poets, but we never carry writing tablets"). DD transitioned easily to Latin's Not So Tough, Level 3, when we finished GSWL.

Oooooooh, those are so pretty! I can just see them hanging from the ceiling like mobiles!

For your kids' ages, I think SOTW 1 will work just fine. If your oldest needs more, you can give her additional reading (and writing, if need be), and you can use supplemental picture books so that your younger one is interested as well. We did that sort of thing for several years, and it was really nice (and did save me time). Ancient history is often really a lot of fun for kids (making sugar cube pyramids, dressing up as Egyptians and Romans, reading Greek myths, etc.), so it would make a great introduction to formal history.

I have high hopes to do some Christmas crafting/art next week. My kids are 11, 8, 5, and 2 (and slingbaby), so obviously, they may not all enjoy the same things. I am open to any suggestions for favorite things to create (other than cookies!). Pinterest boards are fine, but I'd like to narrow it down a wee bit more than "type in 'Christmas craft' at Pinterest." We will probably do some sort of bird feeder in January, because it'll be snowy and cold here for quite a while after that. Religious is fine (welcome, even).

LOL! My very educated mother now serves noodles at my house, instead of nine pizzas. My kids are big fans of the TapQuizMaps app or whatever it's called, so they're learning European geography. I keep having to stop myself to say "Czech Republic" and "Slovakia." They're fascinated when I tell them that when I was their age, it was all completely different. I had a BLAST last year when we did Ancients. My degree is in medieval history, and I'm pretty decent in US history and had a basic exposure to early modern and modern world history -- but nothing in ancient history at all. So that was pretty cool. I also love learning the Singapore way of doing math. :)

I've always used midwives, who don't always have prescriptive authority, so when I am sick during pregnancy, I see my regular doctor. When I was pregnant with #2, I had a strange thing where I injured a chest muscle or something, something outside of the midwife's scope, so I saw my regular doctor. He gave me some suggestions and had me talk to my midwife about the safest option. During my last pregnancy, my asthma flared up badly, so I saw my regular doctor (a different one), and she prescribed the safest option that brought me relief. I would expect that an OB or midwife would refer you to a regular doctor for a lot of things, but then I would also expect that once the regular doctor made a diagnosis, he/she would contact your OB/midwife to check which was the safest option. It seems like everyone working together should be the norm, although I'm sure it's probably actually not.

Here you go! http://www.amazon.com/Great-Global-Puzzle-Challenge-Google/dp/0753467216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386866644&sr=8-1&keywords=great+global+challenge+google+earth It can be a quick thing, or you can take more time with it. We're taking our time, and we're also using the notebooking sheets from GeoScribe (http://www.historyscribe.com/hs-geoscribe.htm). I put all of the questions from the Google Earth book into a worksheet form and added the GeoScribe sheets for each country. So one day, we do the Google Earth questions and look at the book and play on Google Earth, and then the next time we do geography (I aim for weekly, but it doesn't always happen), we look at some general books about that country and fill in the GeoScribe sheets (which include map and flag, plus things like capital, climate, industry, etc.). I'd also love to get it together enough to have a snack or treat from that country too. :)

A Wrinkle in Time B is for Betsy A Little Princess

We have done that most of the time too, or in direct conjunction with history (they all really like the mapwork for HO and SOTW), but this year, we have also been having a ton of fun with the Google Earth book, learning a bit about each country, even if it's not necessarily connected to anything else. It's the first time geography has been a separate subject.

I am glad for this thread. DD is on about week eight (yeah, we are taking it a little slowly), and she's doing well so far, but I am SO glad to know that a lot of hand-holding is to be expected down the road.

I'm one of those who just really doesn't care about scientific topics. I get that they're important, but I'm just not interested in the "why." Fortunately for my children, my DH is just the opposite, and he passed on that curiosity to them. And both of us love history. I would say that my third grader spends about 30 minutes a day doing history, five days a week. This year, he is using History Odyssey and reading the books himself, rather than me reading aloud. He does the written facts on his own, and I review them and listen to anything else he has to say about what he read; there is also a lot of telling Daddy about what they read, and (the unexpected side benefit of the two big kids working on their own and me getting out of the middle) the two big kids discuss the topics with each other! Last year, we did SOTW Ancients, and I read aloud. Still about 30 minutes a day, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less if we just had a few picture books to read. For science, about 30-60minutes most days. I read Mr. Q aloud, and the kids do the review sheets. Experiments take about 30 minutes, maybe, including a lab write up sheet that I have them do pretty often. This year, I also am aiming to spend about an hour a week or so doing concentrated geography with them, unrelated to their history. Plus, they read on their own from history, science, nature, etc.